Leaving Coaley Peak I backtracked
up the road slightly towards
a wee place by the name of...
Here (just before the first house)
I picked up a footpath which took me down
into woodland once again.
Here I was menaced by the
woodsedge along the path side
but also enjoyed spotting
some slimemold
and other boscy dwellers
After a little while I emerged from the woodland
into the upper reaches of the village of Uley
(that's "you-lee" to the un-initiated!)
I was amused to find that Uley has an old
style petrol station which I wouldn't normally
spot driving through the village.
It stated that it was "Open" and I momentarily
believed it! (I wonder how much petrol was the
last time it WAS open!)
It is now of course, merely preserved
for show.
Another unusual feature to Uley is its Brewery,
producing only its own local ale.
A pint of this suited as a lunchtime refresher.
Suitably refreshed after this I headed out
of Uley climbing over "Uley Bury", an Iron age
hill fort which also has archeological evidence for
a Romano-british pagan temple.
Unfortunately rain stopped play
with my camera here. Await another blog.
After the climb up, a decent towards
the base of Cam Long Down
In this dip between hills wild clematis and dog rose
bloomed
I then followed the Cotswold Way
once again,
with views of Downham Hill
to my left
and back to Coaley Peak on my right
This time I took a route skirting around the lefthand side
of Cam Long Down
Then I crossed over the "saddleback" and down
across fields once again.........
...over stiles.....
......and through gates, heading for Upper Cam
where once across the Cam river again I was
on the homeward straight!
A very satisfactory 5 hour round trip, I hope you'll
agree!
.......then I returned home ready for breakfast!
...and here a view from Darwin's "Thinking Path" (with his greenhouse visible beyond the hedge) along which he walked three times each day, rain or shine, regular as clockwork.
